Tuesday, August 14, 2012

haroon siddiqui: martha nussbaum

Nussbaum cites the case of law professor Amy Chua, author of The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, in which she “admitted leaving her 3-year-old daughter to stand outside in the cold and on another occasion had forced her to stay at the piano without bathroom access or water because she had not mastered a difficult passage in a piano work. One did wonder why the police were not on her doorstep. That sounds to me like child abuse . . .

“If the incident had occurred in an immigrant Muslim household rather than in an upper-middle class home of two Yale University law professors, the mother hailing from a minority known for its laudable work ethic, the police might have shown more concern for that little girl, and in this case they would have been right. If similar coercive tactics were used to get a child to wear a burqa, then, the case would be open to intervention.”